Author(s): Deborah Noyes

Biography

The compelling and true story of how one truly dedicated journalist admitted herself to an asylum to write a groundbreaking expose.

Young Nellie Bly had ambitious goals, especially for a woman at the end of the nineteenth century, when the few female journalists were relegated to writing columns about cleaning or fashion. But fresh off a train from Pittsburgh, Nellie knew she was destined for more and pulled a major journalistic stunt that skyrocketed her to fame- feigning insanity, being committed to the notorious asylum on Blackwell's Island, and writing a shocking expose of the clinic's horrific treatment of its patients.

Nellie Bly became a household name and raised awareness of political corruption, poverty, and abuses of human rights. Leading an uncommonly full life, Nellie circled the globe in a record seventy-two days and brought home a pet monkey before marrying an aged millionaire and running his company after his death.